Crossover Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Crossing Barriers ❯ Necessities, Bad News, and a Pause to Breathe ( Chapter 6 )

Crossing Barriers

 

Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed are the sole property of their creators and distributing studios. I have no financial interest in either series. Nor am I receiving any financial gain from this fan fiction work. I do however own all plot elements not part of the original and all self-created characters. Thank you. Enjoy.

 

Special note: Yaoi (homosexual pairings) is a plot element of this story. There will be NO explicit material but there will be sections where it is reasonably clear that sex is happening or has happened.

 

Beta Reader: T'Amara

 

 

 

Necessities, Bad News, and a Pause to Breathe

 

 

 

Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian settled the unaccustomed weight of her carry-sak over her right shoulder. Nor was that weight all she was trying to become accustomed to quickly. The assassination attempt on Dorothy had made it terribly clear that it was time, maybe past time, to make a decision and leave. The apparent ease with which they'd gotten into the Residence quite frankly frightened her. If her brother and his wife hadn't come for a clandestine visit, the enemy might well have carried out their mission.

 

As it was, Milliardo had killed four of them and Noin had taken down another pair, breaking up the attack and allowing them both to capture the last two. It had been a very short-lived triumph though. Both captives had bitten down on poison capsules they'd had hidden in false teeth and died in under a minute. To say her brother was angry about losing them like that was a serious understatement. Even now, she wasn't inclined to mention the loss to him. He was still wearing anger like a second skin.

 

All this accounted for her finding herself walking swiftly through the main train station in the Sanq capital, trying to keep up with her brother and wearing a thorough if hastily assembled disguise. Her dark honey-blond hair was now an attractive light auburn and she wore it in a single braid that fell forward over her right shoulder. The deep, almost forest green blouse was belted over a rich mahogany skirt that fell almost to her ankles. She was wearing plain black flats and a multi-strand necklace of bright beads that drew attention to itself and away from her face.

 

Carefully chosen eye shadow turned her clear blue eyes to a much muddier color unless one looked quite closely. The impression was helped by the sallow tones of the makeup brushed on so delicately. Even her lipstick had been selected with an eye to dulling the overall appearance of her face. And she wore beaded earrings with very long fringes that matched the necklace and drew the eyes that did rise to her face downward again toward her jaw. All in all, `Ree Dancer' looked nothing like the neatly turned out, professional diplomat who was Relena Dorlian.

 

Dorothy Catalonia stalked beside her, angrier than Milliardo was. Not only was she furious about the attack, she was disgusted with the disguise. First and foremost among the things she was never going to forgive the attackers for was forcing her to allow Noin to pluck her distinctive forked eyebrows. Now she had only one eyebrow line, the high one that made her look almost elvish because the angle was so pronounced. And her pale gold hair had been dyed to complement Relena's light auburn. On Dorothy, it had come out more a very dark strawberry blond than auburn but it was most definitely not a golden blond! She didn't like the braid either, having pointed out, quite cuttingly and quite often, that she was NOT Duo Maxwell. Neither Milliardo nor Noin had paid the slightest attention to that objection, which had only made her madder. Relena sighed as silently as she could. This was not going to make this escape any easier.

 

A warm, golden brown blouse with lace at the front and a deep charcoal skirt over brown flats made up the base of Dorothy's costume. She got to wear a double string of plain amber beads with matching earrings. Her makeup was chosen to emphasize the brown tones, to deepen her apparent skin shade from its natural paleness to something more golden. All in all, somehow, they now looked like they might be related. It had been a shock to them both when they'd recognized that.

 

Her brother's hair was now an auburn that matched hers quite closely. He too, wore it braided down his back. And like Maxwell, his braid also hid a rather interesting array of small objects that normal people wouldn't keep in their hair. Relena had decided the metal ones all had to be made of gundanium when he stalked through a security scan without setting off the smallest blip.

His shirt was midnight blue and both the tunic and the slacks were black. He even had a single, heavy gold hoop in his left ear. Low black half-boots completed his outfit.

 

Noin had let her hair grow since Relena had last seen her. It tumbled to her shoulders now and she'd shortened the bangs enough to be noticeable to anyone who remembered the former Oz officer she'd once been. Her dark hair wasn't readily adaptable to a simple dye job so they'd settled for streaking it heavily with silver hair paint. She wore silver eye shadow and a silver blouse under a deep gray vest. A skirt very similar to Dorothy's completed her outfit as she had no jewelry at all other than a wedding ring that wasn't the handcrafted masterpiece Milliardo had given her.

 

The results of all these disguises was to make them not only not look like themselves but to appear to be a single group as well. The similarity of the clothing and the jewelry, all from a single style really, helped that immensely. So did the almost matching hair color for the three of them. A study a Residence mirror had shown her a family group with the man's wife accompanying them. Despite the plainness of the clothes, they looked like they were well off members of the new `Traditionalist' movement that had been taking such sweeping hold in certain European circles controlled by the remaining Romefeller families lately. And with that movement's emphasis on the dominance of the male, it would surprise no one when Milliardo did all the talking for them as they traveled as well.

 

Getting them all ready had taken more time than she'd wanted to allow for it. It meant they'd missed the flight she'd initially chosen for them too. But that delay had proven very beneficial. Among other things, it had given General Une a chance to reach Milliardo and persuade him to allow her to put him back on the Preventer's active roster. Once he'd agreed, however reluctantly, Noin had accepted as well. The General was only half-pleased though. Apparently the assassination attempt had forced her to change the plans she'd had for Milliardo and Noin. Relena hadn't heard most of that discussion but she had seen her brother's face when it ended and she rather thought perhaps it was no bad thing that he wasn't being hauled off wherever Une had first wanted to send him.

 

The other thing that had happened wasn't nearly so pleasant. Less than two hours after it had taken off, the plane they'd intended to take to Japan vanished with all aboard somewhere in the Indian Ocean near the Arabian peninsula. Someone inside the Residence had to be on two payrolls as no one at the airline had the slightest idea who had purchased those tickets. They had slipped out of the Residence through the escape tunnel under the panic room, telling no one, not even Pagan, where they were going or how they were going to get there.

 

She knew Milliardo hadn't mentioned that short message from J either. She hadn't understood a word of it but her brother and Noin certainly had. Given some of the very colorful things he was muttering when he read it, J had sent the message in one of the old but supposedly still secret high level Oz codes. Whatever it said, it had acted much like lighting a fire under him would have. He had them organized and out of the Residence less than twenty minutes later.

 

They slowed and came together in a tight cluster a few meters from the rest of the waiting passengers that were crowding the platforms where the trains were loading. Her role was to be silent and obedient but that didn't preclude also being watchful or observant. Nor was she surprised when Dorothy came to stand erectly beside her, her look of disdainful boredom a good cover for razor keen eyes that missed nothing around her.

 

“Zane,” she spoke very softly, managing to remember the cover name he'd only mentioned once. “Will you please tell me where we're going?”

 

“Too public.” Milliardo replied just as quietly.

 

Relena kept a scowl off her face only by an effort of heroic self control. She really was getting tired of everyone's assumption that she was a fool or an idiot who couldn't keep her mouth shut. Not even Duo Maxwell at his most suspicious, or Chang at his most misogynistic, had treated her like she was such a vast security risk! That it was coming from her brother was irritating her.

 

“We have company.” Noin said so quietly it was more intuited than heard. “They don't seem to recognize us. Don't look around. Let him deal with it.”

 

A quick side glance showed her Dorothy standing impossibly uncharacteristically subdued. It was the posture of a thoroughly cowed `Traditional' daughter. It suggested Milliardo was a very vicious monster indeed to reduce someone to this. It was horrifying - and damned effective.

 

Relena couldn't copy it, but she could look a lot more browbeaten than most realized when she needed to. She dived into a character from an old school play, and crumpled in on herself. She became `little Susie', the abused child from that nasty story the Headmistress had liked so well. Once, she'd practiced this role in front of mirrors in an effort to make it look real. Now she didn't need the mirrors to know that any watcher would see a girl who'd just received a severe reprimand, and who feared worse when she was out of this public place.

 

She was very careful not to look around at all. But the man passed close enough for her to see him without needing to do anything suspicious at all. The look he gave all three of the girls made her more than a bit sick to her stomach. But it was the fact that he was wearing the uniform of a Preventer Captain that alarmed her. What was someone like that doing in the Preventers?

 

The malicious expression was gone as quickly as it had come. He simply nodded pleasantly to Milliardo and walked on by. Her brother gave him a small, almost distracted nod back as he turned most of his attention to the small folder in his hand.

 

And that was all there was to the incident. Whoever he was, the strange Captain didn't even break stride as he sailed past their small group. Milliardo consulted his folder with a focused frown that she knew was false. He was watching that man, and he was making sure he hadn't left any `friends' around to follow them.

 

She found herself very glad for those small lessons in how to observe without appearing to be doing any such thing Trowa had given her after the Mariemaia War. She was just as grateful for the breezy lectures from Duo on why some behaviors were suspicious and others weren't, and how to recognize when circumstances might change which was which. The advice from Quatre regarding how to be overlooked and underestimated was coming in handy today too.

 

The one set of lessons she hoped she wasn't going to need were the secret ones in self defense she'd managed to convince Wu Fei to give her. For while she would be an unpleasant surprise for any attacker, she knew enough now to know just how much more there was to learn. Nor did she have any delusions about her skill. Any professional was going to be much, much better than she was. And once the surprise factor was gone, so was she. For despite truly heroic efforts on his part, `Fei hadn't been able teach her even the small amount of aggression she'd need to survive such a fight.

 

They boarded their train a bit later. No one seemed to be paying them any serious attention. They did catch a lot of glances but none of them were ugly and Relena was used to what they were getting; both the admiring and the lecherous were all too familiar to someone who spent as much time in the public eye as she had. None of them responded to any of the looks; they were all as familiar with them as she was.

 

It wasn't until they were seated in a private compartment with the door firmly closed and the train starting to pull out that she saw something that chilled her to her core. The malignant Preventer Captain was standing on another section of the platform, clearly waiting for his train to begin boarding. The man was facing away from her. But he wasn't the focus of her attention. It was the two who had joined him that shocked her.

 

Dieter Von Rubenstein was a very powerful and influential lobbyist. The man had access to a stunning array of people in positions of power thanks to the company he'd inherited from his father after the Eve Wars. The Von Rubenstein Agency had been large and well respected for decades before the Wars, he'd only expanded it since he'd come to the chairman's seat.

 

The man was arrogant and condescending towards all women although he was good at hiding it in public. He was also quite wealthy and moved in the best circles. So why was he standing on a public train platform dressed like no one special and holding himself in a manner that made it clear to anyone with lessons from Quatre that he was the inferior in the conversation he was having with the Preventer? Her eyes narrowed slightly as she gave him a quick but intent study. She decided he wasn't doing that on purpose, that it was something subconscious, some unknown level of power the Captain had over him that put that almost invisible curve in his spine and rounded his shoulders ever so slightly. Who was that bastard? And why, she thought with some shock, did she automatically think of the Captain with that word?

 

Unsettling as Von Rubenstein was, it was the other young man who had such cold fingers dancing up her spine. Because that was Rodney Holmes, socialite and all around useless toady to the powerful of the political left. And no, she didn't care one whit that his hair was blond when Holmes had dark brown hair. It was Rodney! The idiot should have done more than bleach his hair if he didn't want people to recognize him.

 

But it was impossible really. It couldn't be Rodney. Rodney had been killed when an unsuspected weakness in a high canyon wall had brought many tons of stone down on the cars carrying Senator Locke and his entourage to the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Flatwoods Gorge bridge three days ago!

 

“Ree,” Dorothy said quietly. “Isn't that your appointment undersecretary, Lavonsky?”

 

Relena followed the discretely pointing hand and recognized the bland, dark haired man who she'd had order the fortunately wasted airline tickets only a few hours earlier as he slipped up to the others and joined them. “Yes.”

 

“Is he?” Milliardo asked almost too softly to hear. “And what business would your appointment undersecretary have with that Preventer?”

 

“More importantly, why is he meeting him in the company of a dead man?” Dorothy asked gently but very coldly as she confirmed what Relena already knew. “Holmes was supposed to have been killed days ago when that rock fall swept Senator Locke's entire party into the river. Pay no attention to the hair that is Holmes!”

 

“Don't watch them.” Noin hissed. “The older one is getting suspicious.”

 

She was right Relena realized. Von Rubenstein was beginning to look around him with the same kind of hidden, careful looks Trowa had taught her how to use. She sat back in her seat and turned slightly away from the window, making sure her eyes were turned down. The weight of hostile eyes brushed her briefly. Then the train was past the four of them and gathering speed as it pulled away from the station.

 

“I think we can guess who is being paid twice now.” Relena said evenly. “We need to know who the Preventer is though. General Une needs to know about him.”

 

“I know him.” Noin said bitterly. “That's Ramirez. He shares an office with Wu Fei. This is getting out of hand too quickly!”

 

“I know.” Milliardo replied, frozen anger lacing his nearly inaudible words. “We can only hope we've moved fast enough.”

 

“Where are we going?” Relena asked the question he'd refused to answer earlier.

 

“London. We'll need to buy some other clothes, things that don't so clearly mark us as coming from Sanq. Then we need to get to America. And we need to do all this in the next twenty hours or so. Because you will be missed.”

 

She nodded, all too aware of what he meant. She had an active schedule and a very public one. Pagan could hide the fact that she wasn't at the Residence for a bit but not even he could keep her leaving a secret much more than a single day. And once that happened, in one of Duo's more apt phrases, all hell was going to be let out for noon.

 

She eyed both `Wind' and `Fire'. “I take it that message you were cursing had instructions in it?”

 

Noin just nodded. “Very clear ones. J's going to make sure all the pawns come together at one point very soon now. And then we leave.”

 

Relena didn't ask where they were leaving for. This was a private compartment but she knew how much information someone with the right gear could collect even without having any active devices inside the door. One of the advantages of knowing the Gundam pilots was getting to listen to them tell war stories when they relaxed. Oh, they carefully pruned them of most of the blood and terror when they knew she was there but that was fine with her. She'd seen enough of that for herself to last her several lifetimes. No, it was the interesting tidbits of data on how they'd done some of those insane missions that she'd found so fascinating.

 

That information had already made her chose her words carefully since they'd fled the Residence and pitch her voice quite low and terribly softly. No one was going to read any betraying vibrations off the door to their compartment if she could help it. She wasn't as worried about the window though. According to Trowa a moving target like a train window was terribly hard to read. She rather doubted they, whoever `they' were, had anyone as good as The Silencer to do their spying. And if Barton said it was nearly impossible for him, she could permit herself to feel relatively safe from whomever they might have.

 

She sat back in the seat and tried to allow herself to at least pretend to enjoy the trip. The others clearly felt the same way. They chatted about books, plays, flowers, and the sad state of the southern wine country. Politics were avoided. Anything military was ignored. And the subjects of space or the colonies simply did not exist. The wandering discussion took them all the way to London.

 

* * * * * * *

 

G hissed softly as the new n-jammer canceller slid into the space they'd managed to make below the mounting for the Wing Zero's reactor. The alien tech was surprisingly logical once they'd torn into it, making it easier to adapt to their mobile suits than they'd dared hope. The systems weren't perfectly compatible of course but they were more than close enough to allow them to come up with a solid, if jury-rigged, set of connectors and activation switches. The cancellers were going to be slightly underpowered but set up right underneath the reactors like this it wouldn't matter. Their field would cover the essential areas at close to full effectiveness.

 

The Zero was the last suit to get its new equipment. Heero had done so much modification work to the damn suit in the year between the Eve Wars and the Mariemaia Incident that it was the trickiest of the suits to get the canceller into. Honestly, you'd think the boy had a hot rod, not a mobile suit with all the tweaking he'd done! He still didn't understand the stupid feather-type wings. The suit couldn't convert to bird-mode with those mounted and while they were much better in the atmosphere than the old, hard thruster mount wings had been, the loss of the disguise factor of the fighter form disturbed him. G didn't agreed with J's putting it back together with as many of the boy's changes intact as they could manage but it hadn't been his call to make so he kept most of his grumbling to himself.

 

He was even less sure about restoring the Zero System. Yes, J had done some serious work on it. It shouldn't overwhelm the mind nearly as severely as the first design had done. But still, it was the full Zero System, it was going to have a powerful affect on anyone who used it. He'd much rather that they'd used the heavily modified version that Heero had temporarily installed in Sandrock for that last battle with the Libra and White Fang.

 

J had nixed that idea immediately, pointing out there was too much loss of possibilities being offered to the pilot with the modified system. Which was the whole point of using it as G saw it. It made the System much more accessible to a much wider selection of mental types. One of the reasons so few could really use the full System was that very overpowering array of choices it sent through the mind of human linked to it. You needed a very strong and logical mindset to master the Zero System. Heero had that. So did Zechs and, to a slightly lesser extent, so did both Quatre and the Catalonia girl.

 

In fact, it was so necessary that a free-association thinker like Maxwell was always going to be swamped under by the massive linear data flood. His mind attached too many other things to the data flow and overloaded under the mass the choices created for him. Considering it had been the original, unmodified System, it really was amazing that he'd survived his one encounter with it with his personality and his sanity intact!

 

It went without saying that there was no version at all of the Zero System installed in the newly rebuilt Deathscythe Hell. Shinigami didn't really need it. His combat style didn't take well to guidance in any form to begin with. No, Maxwell could manage very nicely on his own. There was something to be said for the unpredictability of a serious free-association mind. Mate that to the boy's uncanny ability to get the most out of his suit and a Zero System was honestly redundant anyway.

 

The Wing Zero had a full system of course. However, the Sandrock and the Heavyarms both had a somewhat smaller edition of the limited version Heero had used at Libra and even the renewed Altron carried a few of the circuits. Each one was carefully matched to the boy who would be using the mobile suit. The idea was to maximize their individual advantages without breaking anyone's mind.

 

Not even J was stupid enough to want to see anything close to what had happened to Quatre's brain and soul repeated by overloading them. Poor boy had destroyed an entire colony under the influence of the unmodified System. All of them were highly trained soldiers with an expertise in what could only honestly be called terrorist tactics. Short-circuiting any of their dangerously deadly mindsets would get a lot of innocent people killed. And that was most emphatically not the objective here!

 

G sat awkwardly on the narrow platform behind the Zero and methodically hooked up the control harness to the stolen canceller. It was a one-man job at this point. There just wasn't any space for both of them to work here. Besides, J needed to be watching their taps into the global network now. There had been more and more hints that Crimson Dawn knew too much; neither of them honestly thought they'd get much warning before it became necessary to bring the boys straight here.

 

He was washing up when J found him. One look at the other's angry face told G something major had broken. He cast one quick look over his shoulder at the five silent mobile suits racked behind him. And he knew as he did that they were lucky they were ready to go. Because he was suddenly sure they were out of time.

 

“Did everything go well?” J asked stiffly.

 

“Perfectly. They're all set now.”

 

“Good. There are several interesting stories in the news today.” J growled. “Something happened in a moderate sized salvage yard on L2 that left the place nothing but wreckage. Not a single building still standing. The residence on the site is completely gone; a burned crater a few meters deep is all that's left of it. No idea if there were any casualties or not.”

 

“Maxwell's place.” G said with complete certainty.

 

J nodded. “Then, on L4, there was some mishap during the performance of an acrobatic team with a traveling circus. All four of the performers were killed when their rigging came apart during the grand finale. There were several injured in the audience and among the other performers in the secondary rings at the time.”

 

“Barton's people.” G identified grimly.

 

“Correct. 03 is not among the dead or injured of course. Someone else was headlining that show. And there's some reason to believe Maxwell's house was empty when it blew up too. It seems no one has seen Hilde or old Howard for a week or more.”

 

“Someone didn't do their homework.”

 

“No, they didn't. But the major story is the attack on the Winner residence in Riyadh. There was a battle there worthy of the Eve Wars. The attackers managed to penetrate into the house itself but none got out alive. The family is not releasing any information on casualties.”

 

G scowled savagely. “So they have their names now.”

 

“All five of them. Une admitted today that someone broke into Chang's desk two days ago. The only thing she's sure is missing is his signed picture of the five of them and their Gundams, the one Duo managed to get them to pose for just after the Libra battle. Une said someone searched Chang's home last night too. Since he wasn't there, they don't seem to have damaged anything.”

 

Have you sent any instructions to the boys yet today?” G asked thoughtfully.

 

“Not yet. I haven't sent anything to Zechs either.”

 

He looked up at his colleague. “The games are over. We have to get them off planet now. We keep thinking of Crimson Dawn as small and relative to an old style nation, it is. But its damn well thought out and they have eyes in all the wrong places - well from our point of view that is. From where they sit, they have all the right spots covered. The boys are traveling as a group. I would suspect at least one is in drag but that isn't going to be enough any longer. They're going to be watching for specific numbers. Five and four, the pilots and Relena's company. And any group with the right ages and sizes that travels together now is going to be checked out.”

 

J simply nodded heavily. “I know. At least we've prepared for this. And they're all on the same continent today. The boys can drive down to Quatre's shuttle. The others will have to take one last flight. But we can have them all together by late afternoon, local time, and off planet by dark.”

 

“The Gundams are ready.” G replied. “The supplies are collected, even the extras for the fugitives from Sanq. We can start putting them across into that hanger right after lunch.”

 

“We're going to have to use the fourth site. It's the only one with enough bedrooms and baths.” J said uneasily. “I wish I knew why I don't like that one.”

 

G drew a single deep breath and let it out slowly. He didn't like their fourth choice location either. Yes, it had a hanger large enough to take ten mobile suits. It even had the racks for them although they were clearly designed for construction or maintenance suits rather than war machines. Not that it was going to be any problem, they'd be easy enough to adapt to securely holding a Gundam. The boys wouldn't need much more than a day to make the needed changes.

 

It had a corridor with individual living suites. Each had a bed, bath, sitting room, and small cooking area. They were nicely appointed too. Despite what had obviously been a long time of neglect, the furniture looked to be solid and tester probes had found the air, water, lights, and heat all still operational.

 

And then there were those three big storage rooms. Perfect for the quantity of supplies they were going to have to send over with them. They couldn't just run out to the store for anything there. The colony itself was almost abandoned. The only people they'd noted on their careful scouting forays with the stealth probes had been a handful of scavenger teams digging in the ruins for unknown `treasures'.

 

But the site had unmistakably been hidden from someone right from the time it was built. The connection into that eerily stripped out structure above it had been designed to be a secret, one not easily found from either side of the door either. Secrets like that sometimes continued to have value to whoever built them long after the cover site was a ruin.

 

J shrugged finally. “We don't have any other viable options. And we don't have the time to hunt for them either. Once the boys get here, we'll have to get them across quickly. I don't know what team the Preventers will be sending up to relieve Nelson now that Chang has been forced into hiding but whoever it is will be taking over four days from now. Everything has to be gone from here and the reactor set back to standby before then.”

 

Letting his eyes drift to the only viewport in the hanger, G just gave the neatly ranked pallet loads of supplies that floated in space just outside the port a weary look. J was right. Those were far too obviously not battle wreckage. The blindest fool the Preventers ever enlisted couldn't miss the message they wrote large out there that the place was far from being as deserted as it was supposed to be.

 

“Well, you better start by putting Yuy on alert then.” G said as he turned toward their own small kitchen. “I'll see what can be done with that new crate of rations you found. We might as well enjoy the best ones now or Maxwell will steal them as soon as he gets here.”

 

“He can bring his own chocolate.” J grumped as he headed for the computer.

 

G just grinned.

 

* * * * * * *

 

Trowa woke up to find himself snuggled between Quatre and Wu Fei. Despite the lack of windows, he realized it had to be morning already. Quatre had drawn third watch for last night; he wouldn't be here if Heero hadn't relieved him and Yuy wouldn't have taken over until almost dawn.

 

The acrobat smiled slightly. If he was going to be honest with himself, he was kind of surprised Yuy had been able to take over a watch after the way they'd started the evening. The blatant sexual attraction the Japanese had been radiating at Quatre's lake house was largely gone; burned out by an unrelenting nightly course of demanding sex involving them all. He was still on the receiving end at this point but Trowa was sure that wasn't going to last much longer. Yuy was beginning to eye Maxwell rather like a starved dog eyed a large steak. And he knew the other could get out of those restraints any time he really wanted to now.

 

In truth, it had been beneficial for all of them. Heero had been the most deprived and so showed his needs the most but they'd all been radiating to some extent. And now they were all back to safe levels that didn't catch eyes in public. He hadn't seen anyone eyeing their team with that kind of interest for the last two days, and he'd been watching closely for it. Then too, Quatre had mentioned how much easier it was getting to drift through public spaces with his `space heart' unmolested by unwanted attentions from strangers.

 

He sighed softly, aware now of all the lumps and irregularities in the mattress that hadn't been important enough to register last night. This was their eighth safe house in the last eleven days. The previous seven had been decent enough places if not up to the standards of Quatre's lake home but this was a dump. The orders that had come in last evening had put them on stand-by status. He was not happy to think they might have to stay a second night. He'd been spoiled by nearly three years of peace and civilized living, although he admitted it only to the privacy of his own mind.

 

The place was hidden in the back of a near-ruin of an old warehouse tucked hard against Milwaukee's Mitchell Field and the nearly constant rumble and scream of aircraft taking off and landing hadn't been an asset to sleep. The roof leaked, the floor was warped, the sinks dripped and it came with hot and cold running bugs but no reliable water. If he was any judge the building was probably condemned too; he just hadn't been able to clearly read the notice posted on the boarded over loading dock doors when they'd slipped in yesterday. At least Duo's shopping expedition had brought back foods that needed neither cooking nor refrigeration. He wondered how the Deathscythe pilot had known the kitchen had no working appliances when he'd picked up their groceries; he'd gone shopping before they ever saw that disaster.

 

Movement on the wall beside the bed caught his eye. He turned his head in time to see a millipede of some kind wander onto a shiny line where Quatre's insecticide had accidentally struck the wall. Trowa watched in morbid fascination as the luckless bug crossed, and then went into insect-convulsions seconds later before falling off the wall and out of his sight.

 

Chalk up one more for the foresighted Arab. The only reason they'd been able to use the decrepit queen and lone single bed this hole boasted was because the blond had sprayed the life - literally in this case - out of them both before he let any of them even touch them. As it was, the blankets were suspect enough that they'd torn those off and dumped them in the useless bathtub along with the flat wrecks that masqueraded as pillows rather than risk using either of them. Sleeping in his clothes wasn't Trowa's favorite thing to do. Nor was using his duffel for a pillow. But it kept him from getting too cold without having to use the unsafe blankets.

 

A creak from the unstable floor drew his eye to the doorframe. The door itself was long gone, making the acrobat wonder just what this place was used for when it wasn't hiding Gundam pilots. The fact that there weren't any doors inside the place was curious although he doubted he'd ever get any answer for it.

 

Heero suddenly appeared in the open doorway. When he saw Trowa was awake he gave him a small hand sign. So, they had a message from J did they? He frowned slightly as Yuy's quick fingers told him the message wasn't complete. But, they were now on active standby it seemed. His eyes narrowed; so they weren't going to be stuck there much longer. A second glance at Heero told him the Wing's pilot was sliding into mission mode. Yuy thought things were about to start moving too eh? Then it was time to get up. The moment Heero left he sat up, knowing his abrupt movement would wake both Quatre and Wu Fei.

 

“Is there some reason for us to be awake in this dismal place?” Chang asked irritably.

 

“Heero was just here. J has us on active standby. Get up and find something fresh to wear. We'll probably be moving on short notice. Yuy was wearing his bodysuit and was dressed to go out.”

 

Twenty minutes later, they were packed. The erratic water supply had worked for a while, long enough to let all three of them at least manage a sketchy wash and toothbrushing. It had been winter-cold again though; they were all very awake now.

 

Since they expected to have to move again, Trowa pulled out his last clean traveling outfit. The textured brown shirt and black denim jeans were almost new and quite respectable. They were also completely forgettable. He didn't bother with the matching jacket other than to put it on top of his duffle when he dropped it beside Duo and Heero's on the sheet Quatre had sprayed so they would have a place to put things they didn't want the bugs to take over.

 

“Hee-chan's manning the computer.” Duo announced cheerfully, his hard eyes belying the happy voice. “Looks like we're coming to the end of these stupid little dodge-around trips.”

 

“Good.” Quatre said bluntly. “We aren't getting anywhere doing this. Someone is going to count to five and notice us if we keep this up. They may be looking for boys but I doubt they're thick enough to ignore any consistently moving group of five.”

 

Duo nodded. “Yeah, Hee-chan thinks the same thing. He's set to argue with J if this looks like one more wasted move. Like the outfit by the way Q-man.”

 

“Thank you. We've been traveling as three boys and two girls too long. It was time to change the ratio before we got too much attention.”

 

Trowa looked over at his partner, not expecting what he found. He blinked, and smiled. So that was why he'd insisted on being the last one through the bath! It also explained that raid on the lingerie shop a couple stops back. The slender blond made as striking a girl as Duo did.

 

Quatre had a light-boned build to start with. Wearing that blouse and the rather heavily decorated, many pocketed jeans, he looked outright fragile. The clothes were well worn but still quite reasonable. Trowa could only wonder where he'd found them. They hadn't had all that much time to go shopping after all and he hadn't seen them in the other's kit before.

 

Heero stuck his head out of the room they'd arbitrarily labeled the den. “The instructions will begin downloading in about half an hour. J suggests we dump most of what we've got for luggage in some charity bin and pick up things we'll want to keep. I'd say we're about to get a real destination this time.”

 

Duo raised both eyebrows. “Wonder what bit him?”

 

“It must have bitten rather hard.” Quatre said thoughtfully. “We've only been playing his game eleven days. It isn't like J to give up his amusements this quickly.”

 

“That,” Wu Fei noted grimly, “is entirely dependent on what else is going on that we don't know yet.”

 

Trowa nodded slightly, “Duo, you know where to find one of the recycled clothing stores don't you? I would like to scrap my laundry and replace it with outfits that no one has on record but brand new clothing isn't necessarily a good idea.”

 

The braided pilot nodded. “Sure! Biggest one in the state is only a few blocks from here. There's a whole outlet mall right by it. They pretty much sell second class stuff but it'll look all right for a few trips through the wash. And it'll be cheap. I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't bring all that much cash with me.”

 

“I have a good supply.” Heero said evenly. “And I've just tapped into some accounts I haven't bled in a while too. I can get us all the cash we need.”

 

“Hee-chan!” Duo cried in mock exasperation. “What do you think this is, the war? Who are ya stealing from these days?”

 

The Japanese shrugged indifferently. “Whoever has more than they can use. Besides, I'm not greedy. No one account loses enough to notice. It only adds up when I tap a dozen or more in one trip. That cash machine at the convenience store down the block will give us a good deal more than its supposed to once I run my special card through it. I have eight more machines primed too. If we can reach even three of them, we'll be in good shape for money.”

 

“Never ignore money.” Quatre said quietly. “The things you can buy your way out of tend to be a lot less conspicuous than the ones you have to fight your way out of. Give me that list please. I want to drop off the van we picked up a couple days ago. Duo and I can park it in some factory's lot and collect something different. Give me that card and we can stop by at least one or two of those machines while we're out.”

 

“I'll go with you.” Trowa said quickly as Heero handed over a brightly colored bankcard.

 

“You will not.” Quatre replied immediately, slipping the card into a zippered pocket on his jeans. “Two girls spotted in passing at a site where a vehicle goes missing will be less remembered than two girls and a guy who might have known how to hotwire said missing vehicle. We'll be careful. This isn't a neighborhood to wander idly anyway. No one will expect us to stop or talk with them around here.”

 

Duo nodded briskly. “Yeah, Q-man and I are just about right as we stand now. We're dressed only a step or so better than the area so the locals won't think we're ignorant targets and because we're both neat and clean, the local business' hired muscle will mostly ignore us. We don't look like trouble but we do look enough like we belong in this kind of area to be real forgettable.”

 

“Looks like the two of you have aren't forgettable.” Heero said evenly. “Keep to yourselves and don't encourage anyone. Be busy and focused. It'll discourage most at this time of day.”

 

“'Ro! I know how to do this ya know!” Duo snapped.

 

Yuy's face was completely neutral again. “No you don't. You haven't been cross-dressing for the last three years on a regular basis, I have. You haven't learned how to assess your own appearance to safely anticipate the reactions of those you'll be out among like I've had to. You're both too pretty. You will catch eyes. And you don't want their owners to even have the idea that you might be available cross their minds. Because that isn't the kind of situation you can buy your way out of.”

 

“I take it this is experience speaking?” Wu Fei asked.

 

Heero just nodded sharply, a bitter twist suddenly set on his lips. “Busy, focused. Don't forget those words. They'll allow you to ignore everything that doesn't put itself right in your path. And Quatre, if it comes down to a choice between money and safety, chose safety. As I said, I still have a fair stash. I can probably get us wherever we have to go even if we have to buy the tickets at the counter.”

 

The blond Arab bobbed his head once as he bowed to Heero's greater experience. Yuy stayed a bit to play with Quatre's hair enough to turn it from neatly attractive to something of a frizzy mess. Nothing seriously bad, but enough to break up his `first impression' looks. He wound Maxwell's braid once around the other's head before pulling it up and through itself twice at the very back of the boy's head. He unbraided the free end, leaving the now mid-back length free to blow around. It didn't exactly make Duo less attractive but it certainly wasn't anything like his typical appearance either. Trowa noted with some interest that both of them looked a couple years older once Yuy was done too.

 

“So,” Duo asked as they slipped their jackets on, “any last items you want us to grab while we're out?”

 

“Can you stop at that second-hand clothing store for all of us?” Wu Fei asked. “I think perhaps two onnas shopping will be less noticeable than if we all go. You have a good idea of our sizes and preferences, you probably won't bring anything back that we'll have to throw out immediately.”

 

“Love you too, Wu-fu.” Duo glared.

 

“Yes we can.” Quatre cut in before this could degenerate into a fight. “Anything else?”

 

“If that mall has a store with makeup, you might want to stop there too.” Heero said thoughtfully. “I brought my kit but it isn't big enough to deal with the needs of all five of us much longer. I'm running low on foundations, shadows and hair paints. Use your imaginations but don't pick up anything too ugly. A good female disguise never looks like it's trying to hide your best features.”

 

“Too true!” Duo laughed. “Hey, Q-ball! Lets roll!”

 

“Duo!” Heero suddenly snapped. “Buy yourself a skirt and something to go with it. You need to change your silhouette. You live too much in pants. Oh, and while at the makeup place, get some hair remover too. Women don't have fuzzy legs.”

 

“Heero!”

 

“I'm not going to repeat myself. Just buy it!”

 

“But, I like my legs just how they are!”

 

“It grows back.” Yuy said dismissively as he headed back to the den and his computer.

 

Quatre grabbed Maxwell and dragged him out of the door. Only after said door was completely closed did Trowa grin at Wu Fei, who offered him a smirk back. They turned and followed Yuy into the den. If there was going to be information, they wanted to be there when it arrived. Their timing was good, the computer started scrolling at a furious rate as they walked in.

 

* * * * * * *

 

The phone rang and Ramirez picked it up. “Preventers, Captain Ramirez speaking.”

 

“The Sun rises.”

 

Ramirez froze. This wasn't supposed to happen here. No one was ever supposed to call him while he was in the office. The Preventers recorded all phone conversations.

 

“What kind of joke is this?” He managed to snap.

 

“The birds flew but found no grain.”

 

“If you do not explain yourself, I will order this call traced!” The Captain told the unknown speaker sharply.

 

“Find the grain.” The line went dead.

 

He moved on a kind of auto-pilot. Alerting the central communications office to a possible prank call, Jose requested a trace. He was assured it would be done. He hung up and tried to breath normally again.

 

This was bad, very, very bad. Someone had decided the situation required possibly compromising him. That wasn't a decision another field agent could make. Only Headquarters could make a call like that, especially when the possibly compromised agent was as well set in an enemy organization as he was.

 

As his heart began to slow back toward something like normal, he reviewed the brief message. The Sun had told him there would be strike teams hitting the three vulnerable Gundam pilots. It was clear they'd all failed. None of the pilots had been killed. If what he'd heard was correct, they hadn't even been seen!

 

`Find the grain', that was the order. Find out where those Gundam pilots had vanished to. What went unsaid was the order to find out how they'd known to flee.

 

When was he supposed to do this? His team was going to be rotating up for space duty in four more days! The ramp-up was already going full speed. His days were committed and because of the imminent rotation out, he had to check in during the evenings to be sure there weren't any hitches developing. He couldn't vanish for any length of time at all now, it would be noticed immediately.

 

`Find the grain'. Just because he'd stumbled on one Gundam pilot, why did anyone think he could find them all? He didn't even know where the one he had found had gone! You'd think General Une's signature on his leave papers was a vanishing spell, Chang had disappeared so completely!

 

His mind skidded to a stop, then began to reassess what he'd just been thinking. Chang had vanished after the General had signed his leave papers. She'd signed them personally, had called the Chinese Captain into her office and he'd had his leave approved by the time he left. Maybe, just maybe, the Gundam pilots hadn't known a thing. Une was the one who knew something. She'd sent Chang off and somehow warned the others!

 

Shit! How much did the woman know? Where had she learned whatever it was she'd found out that made her send Chang away? Who else knew what Une knew?

 

Ramirez settled back coldly. Something had spooked the General. She had sent Chang into hiding. One of them, Chang or Une, had alerted the other pilots. There was a security breach somewhere in the Dawn organization itself. Nothing else fit.

 

He had no answer to the order to find the pilots but this had to be reported. If the breach was ongoing, the entire rational revolution was in danger. Jose eyed his phone but knew he couldn't use it. The auto-record program could be disabled but if there was a breach large enough to have Une sending the Gundam pilots into hiding, then she probably had someone watching to see if anyone tampered with the phones. She clearly realized at least the possibility of the Preventers being infiltrated.

 

He snarled silently at the desk across from his. The luck the Gundams were so famous for had struck again. Despite his lack of time, he was going to have to make a trip to the Officers Club. Only a direct hand-off would do in this kind of situation. Anything less wouldn't get the message delivered quickly enough.

 

He set up his small touch-pad and hurriedly composed a request for assistance in breaking into the General's office and safe. The data they needed would be there, he was sure of it. The woman was a hopeless creature of habit after all. Everything important went into her office safe.

 

* * * * * *

 

Quiet, pale slate blue eyes watched the video from the hidden camera. So, it appeared Anne Une had been right. This one was a mole. Well, there were things that could be done about that.

 

The touch-pad interested the watcher. Those recorded everything entered onto them. Officially, it was child's play to wipe their memory units. The problem was, that wipe wasn't permanent as people thought. It took unusual skill and a delicate touch but it was possible to recover everything from a touch-pad. Both Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell had that skill. And Duo had been generous enough to share it with the watcher at the end of the Eve Wars. If the pad could be acquired, it could be made to tell whatever it knew.

 

It was unfortunate that it wasn't possible to read what the mole was entering. The camera just couldn't catch the surface at a good enough angle. It really was going to be necessary to get the pad itself to get the answers. Well, that could be arranged later. For the moment, it was important to prevent this traitor from succeeding. The `grain' had to stay missing as far as he was concerned.

 

A free hand tapped a keyboard. A message was sent. The mole would be watched, followed, intercepted if necessary. More, anyone and everyone he spoke to or touched tonight would also be tracked. After all, the watcher smiled tightly, there were a lot more good guys here than bad ones. As long as the bastard stayed on the watcher's home ground, he wasn't going to accomplish a thing.

 

By the time the mole had finished his work and left his office, a small army was mobilized against him. Things were working quickly to prevent him from accomplishing anything that evening. They would see to it that the message would not reach the people it was intended for.

 

Indeed, he wouldn't even reach his destination. Chance chose to favor the defenders again; the mole encountered a genuine accident on his way to the Officers Club. A foot thoughtlessly placed, a small pool of spilled grease, a fall. The mole would wake in the morning in the base infirmary with a nasty headache and unaware of the fact that the opposition had managed to spend almost seven hours with his touch-pad. What they learned from it would save many lives the mole would have been happy to see wasted. It was just unfortunate that it wouldn't be smart to waste him; at least not until he'd led them to more of the agents his side had planted in their organization.

 

* * * * * * *

 

Relena looked out at the approaching city with interest. She'd never been to the North American south before. They were passing one of the large parks on the edge of the city now, one that held a historic home preserved as a time capsule of another age. It was fascinating to see the historic archetype as a physical reality. She'd always thought the illustrations were more fantasy than history. How nice to be proven wrong for once.

 

“It's clean.” Noin said quietly as she carefully began to pack away the tracer gear she'd been using to test their vehicle ever since they'd picked it up at the airport.

 

Relena jerked her attention back into the car. “Milliardo! Where are we going?”

 

“Call me Zechs.” Her brother replied wearily. “Really, even you should be able to remember how dangerous it is to use my other name.”

 

“Yes, I'm sorry.” And she was, but that wasn't going to stop her questions. “Very well, where are we going Zechs?”

 

“To a Preventer safe-house on the far side of the city.” He answered. “Noin and I have decided the safest way to travel now is to pretend we're a special operations team. You and Dorothy will be our partners, first time agents under the guidance of more seasoned operatives. That way, no one will be expecting you to be making the team's decisions or even acting much on your own.”

 

“Ah!” Dorothy nodded briskly. “This gives us full access to all Preventer resources as well.”

 

“Correct.” Zechs smiled grimly. “Most importantly, it eliminates any questions if Une should get in touch with us directly. I think we may want to take the local `ready' shuttle when we make our next move. Our enemies aren't likely to be looking for us inside the Preventer's mantle yet.”

 

She considered the situation carefully. Her brother had this well thought-out but something was nagging at the back of her mind. It was something Noin had said all the way back in the train station in Sanq. The remark had told her the four of them weren't the only ones involved with this, well this escape for lack of a better word.

 

Noin reached over and turned on the car's radio, obviously intending to cut off all further discussion for a while. “. . . . . Winner representative has repeated the family statement from this morning. No new developments have been announced by either the family or the authorities in Riyadh. It is not possible to fly close enough to the damaged residence to get good pictures but what is available makes it clear the attackers came in through the southern wall of the compound and struck directly for the family's private wing. The extent of the damage is uncertain at this time but what can be made out indicates both the master suite and the offices of Quatre Raberba Winner have been completely destroyed. There has been no statement from the young Winner heir and he has not been seen since the attack.”

 

“Quatre! Someone attacked Quatre?” Relena stared at the blank face of the car radio in shock.

 

“Turn it off.” Zechs ordered sharply.

 

Noin complied wordlessly.

 

“Zechs,” Dorothy asked dangerously, “what is going on?”

 

“Parties unknown attacked the Winner residence in Riyadh last night.” He replied evenly. “Other teams attacked a salvage yard on L2 and a traveling circus entertaining on L4.”

 

“Who is trying to kill the Gundam pilots?” Dorothy demanded angrily, putting the information together instantly.

 

“Were any of them hurt?” Relena cried.

 

Zechs shook his head angrily. “The same people chasing us are chasing them and there's no word of any of them being hurt. From what Une told us, they'd already gone several days ago.”

 

“Why?” This didn't make sense to her; the Gundam boys feared nothing and ran from less. “They don't run away from anything.”

 

“Of course they do.” Noin replied irritably. “They aren't idiots Relena. They all understand the wisdom of retreating in the face of superior enemy forces. When the enemy is faceless and impossible to readily identify and you know you've been targeted, you run. They all have people they care about. They won't, can't, stay where those people would become targets as well.”

 

“I, I suppose so.” She said slowly. “I just, well it seems so wrong to think of Heero or the others running away.”

 

“Why? It's what we're doing.” Zechs pointed out coldly. “Yuy isn't stupid enough to stand against impossible odds without a reason to. He's fairly suicidal, or at least he used to be, but he never failed to analyze a situation before he'd do anything. And he never attempted one of his self-destructive moves unless he thought the situation demanded it. So, since he hasn't enough data to decide it's necessary yet, he's going to keep moving and out of sight until he can gather the information to make his tactical decisions. The rest are just as well trained - and just as pragmatic in this kind of situation.”

 

She sat back and thought about that. Most specifically, she considered the information both Heero and J had sent her. She didn't trust J as far as she could throw the Residence but she knew Heero wouldn't lie to her or fail to give her the information he thought she needed to make informed decisions. Given that trust, what did she know?

 

Well, for one thing she knew the data was inadequate for much of any decision making. It hadn't surprised her that J's information had been so thin but he'd actually had a couple facts Heero hadn't. So she had to assume in this case J might actually know more that Heero did. My, that was a nasty idea! Unfortunately, it fit the few facts she did have.

 

She also knew her brother believed the danger was real and immediate. Milliardo hadn't come back from Mars, and brought Noin with him, on some kind of whim. He was far too hated here for his actions at the end of the Eve Wars. While she could see him taking such a risk for himself, he wouldn't have brought his wife if it weren't even more dangerous to leave her behind.

 

The other pilots had lives they were building. They were reaching for the promise peace held out for them; that they could just be people for once in their lives. Not weapons, not killers, not even heroes, just normal human beings. Yet all of them had left those lives to disappear when they became aware of this new situation. Quatre, Trowa, Wu Fei and Duo had taken Heero's word for the depth of the danger in spite of the lack of hard evidence he could present.

 

She shuddered. Why? Who wanted the horrors of war to come back now? Hadn't everyone suffered enough for one lifetime? What was so wrong with just wanting everyone to live in peace, without war or the threat of the weapons of war hanging over their heads? The Gundams were gone! Why were these miserable creatures hunting the pilots? They couldn't threaten them any longer!

 

“Why?” Relena muttered, unaware she spoke aloud.

 

“Why what?” Zechs asked.

 

She looked up, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror. “Why are they hunting Heero and the others? The Gundams are gone! The Wing Zero shattered at the end of the attack in Brussels. The Deathscythe, the Heavyarms, and Quatre's Sandrock were all destroyed by the boys themselves. Wu Fei blew up the Altron with his own hands! This makes no sense!”

 

“Of course it does!” Her brother gave her a glare. “You aren't thinking Relena. Yes, the Gundams were powerful and dangerous machines. But the real danger never was the machine; it was what the human at the controls could do with it. The Gundam pilots remain a deadly force, even without their machines, simply by virtue of their training and their willingness to do a dirty job so others aren't forced to. And I would think it obvious these new `Crimson Dawn' people are quite aware that none of the pilots will support them, that they will, actually must, oppose them because of what they believe.”

 

“But,” she faltered, “they're not killers. Quatre is a kind and gentle soul. Trowa is a circus clown! He takes great joy in making others happy. Duo has renounced being anything but a salvage dealer. Wu Fei is a defender of the peace! They aren't hurting anyone!”

 

Noin turned sharply. “Don't be a fool! This isn't about what they're doing now and you're smart enough to know that. `Crimson Dawn' is hunting the Gundam pilots because of the danger they present to their long range plans. Can you honestly imagine any of those boys accepting the world `Crimson Dawn' wants to create?”

 

“Yuy wouldn't tolerate it.” Zechs said quietly. “That isn't what he fought for, it isn't what he nearly destroyed himself to achieve. And even if the other four went along, however reluctantly, Yuy alone is too dangerous to ignore.”

 

“Winner wouldn't accept it either.” Dorothy said flatly.

 

“No,” Relena agreed softly, letting go of the last of her wishes to acknowledge reality. “You are all right. None of them will stand back or allow everything they worked so hard to achieve be overturned like this.”

 

“Mr. Merquise, where do we meet them?” Dorothy asked crisply.

 

“I don't know yet. And do not call me that. You are supposed to be a Preventer agent now. You call me Wind and you call Noin Fire. Neither of you should use any other names from now until we're safely off planet.”

 

“Understood.” Catalonia settled back firmly, eyes turning inward as she began to make plans for the disguise.

 

“What will you call us?” Relena asked.

 

“You will be Dancer.” Her brother replied. “Dorothy will be Puppeteer. An agent's name is supposed to reflect something of their skills. However, just what that skill is or how it is to be used is not something the name should give away completely.”

 

“Mine is too suggestive.” Dorothy said.

 

“Perhaps. But it is also not in current use in the organization either. And that also matters. Because you can not use the names of real agents without having someone taking second looks at the situation. You already know we can't afford that.”

 

“I see.”

 

The computer stashed by Noin's feet suddenly beeped loudly enough to be heard through the padded carry case and over the small noises in the car. “Shit!”

 

Zechs was suddenly looking at the exits from the highway, comparing what he could see to the GPS unit in the car. He pulled them smoothly into the far right lane and they drifted easily off the highway minutes later. The area was clearly a major travel stop for just about anyone. There were a number of places to stay offering a range of quality and the assortment of dining spots was equally diverse. She counted eight places to buy fuel and could see three different shopping areas from the ramp as they pulled off. Relena shook her head quietly. The oversupply of just about everything here was so typical of what she'd seen in American cities. How did all these places offering nearly identical services manage to stay in business all tucked in next to each other?

 

Her brother parked them in the far outlot of the closest of the shopping areas before he grabbed the computer. Seeing no reason to stay ignorant, she leaned forward with Dorothy to try to see over Zech's shoulder. Noin was also leaning in from the passenger side.

 

To her immense disgust, it was coded. While that wasn't a surprise, it was irritating. She was getting more than a little tired of not knowing what was going on. She made sure to hiss at the screen, she didn't want her brother to cherish any delusions about how she was feeling right now.

 

“That's childish Relena.” Zechs muttered as he slowly scrolled through the message.

 

“Ignorance is not bliss.” She snapped back.

 

“No, not this time.” He agreed absently. “Let me finish here. We'll go over it then.”

 

She sat back in some surprise. He'd been unwilling to share anything until now unless she pried it out of him. What was in this message that broke that reserve.

 

“Chicago?” Noin said, puzzled.

 

“There's a large Winner shipping point there.” Zechs murmured.

 

“Ah.”

 

Relena glanced at Dorothy, who nodded grimly. So, they were going to Chicago and taking a Winner shuttle into space. Or at least that was what it sounded like.

 

“You caught that?” He asked them both, “the business about Chicago?”

 

“Is that where we're leaving from then?”

 

“Correct. We will be meeting another group and going on one shuttle. I can't imagine it will be anyone but the Gundam pilots we're supposed to go with but we will keep our eyes open anyway. It would be embarrassing to make a wrong assumption and miss a vital cue.”

 

“What are we supposed to do about our disguises?” Dorothy asked. “Do we keep these?”

 

“No, we'll go to the safe house. I'll send a message to the Preventer office here and have them drop off uniforms for us. We'll keep the rest of the things we picked up in London and will add some that I think we can get time to find here. It appears we won't be going anywhere where the shopping will be convenient for a while. We will need to be fully set up at least with clothing. I would recommend making sure you have any other hygiene supplies you prefer stocked as well.”

 

Relena eyed the largest of the three shopping areas. There were several name stores there. And, she looked across the parking area, yes, there was a fair sized second hand store here too.

 

“Is there some specific time we need to be at the safe house?” She asked.

 

“No but I wouldn't want to waste more than a couple hours before we do get there. Why?”

 

She pointed out the shopping possibilities immediately around them. Zechs gave them a thoughtful study, then nodded. New was nice but new was not always a good idea. He moved the car and all of them wandered into the resale shop.